Marc’s post about the “c-word” inspired me to share how I go about starting a content strategy when the client is in a hurry (which is often!).

1. Gather all ye faithful – 9am

Set up a workshop with “surrogate users” – people in your organisation who talk to real users, all the time AND your business thinkers – people in your organisation who can offer strategic insight on the fly. So you’re talking sales people, customer service reps, CEOs, divisional directors, senior managers. Also include some bods from your web team and ask them to swat up on their web stats regarding current popular content (top pages, searches and referral keywords).

How long you need depends on the strength of your will (to whip sideline discussions into shape) and the number of audience groups you have, but considering everyones eyes will typically glaze over in a couple of hours, allocate 2-3 hrs.

Tip – coffee helps…

2. Identify your key peeps – 9-10am

Whip out your whiteboard marker and ask a fundamental question, who are we talking to? Keep it broad at this stage, don’t get bogged down in too much detail. You want to know who the key groups are, what are the fundamental characteristics that define them and what is the key reason they are visiting your site.

Identify at this point if there is a high level user journey or series of site visits that applies to this group – for example a typical process for a shopping site is establishing initial site / brand awareness, product desire and consideration, purchase, service, repeat purchase and referral.

Tip – Draw a box in a corner of the whiteboard labelled “the carpark”. Use it to jot down any ideas or other thoughts that are going off tangent.

3. Drill down into each group – 10-12 noon

Okay, start with your primary audience group, in case you run out of time. Draw up on the whiteboard a big matrix, a bit like the table below. Include user journey steps if applicable. Then ask the group to tell you about what the user is looking for at each step – product information? contact details? company background?

Quick & easy whiteboard template for a website content workshop

Now the important bit – use the group to identify some business goals for each step. They may be key selling points to get across, acquisition/lead capture goals, or a proposition statement, whatever is most applicable at that stage.

Tip – Don’t bother with note-taking, use your camera phone to snap a pic of your whiteboard musings.

4. Chillax – 12 noon – 1pm

Get some fresh air, go for a walk, get some lunch. Think about what you’re cooking for dinner. DON’T think about content.

5. Empower your inner huddle to inspire you – 1-2pm

Have a think about what is going to be the hardest content to come up with, and charge your fellow web/marketing team with the responsibility of scouring the internet for examples of how others have done it. Look broader than your competitors, think laterally – what other companies have similar products to you? similar audiences?

Tip - Use award sites such as the Webbys and FWA to find the world’s top websites.

6. Headphones on! – 2-5pm

Right, turn off your phone, put your headphones on, and start mapping content to user and business goals. I literally draw an extra column after the business goal column on the whiteboard matrix entitled content and list content ideas that match.

User Goals + Business Goals = Content Requirements.

Tip – I use a tool call SnagIT at this stage – a fancy screen capture tool that enables you to edit screenshots or pictures. You could do it in powerpoint or other picture editing software.

7. Vino – 5pm

Tools down, pour a glass of vino and let your content roadmap simmer over night. It gets better the longer you leave it – revisit every 24hrs or so.

I blame Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali and the little skinny dude off The Cook and the Chef. These modern day heroes have us discussing the secret to a good celeriac pure and how you simply must use a good shiraz in your red wine jus, because nothing else will do. I’ve been to dinner parties where the host has perfectly slow poached quail eggs for her crispy noodle and asian green salad but couldn’t manage to cook the rice properly.

Potatoes. Read on, I'll explain.

Let’s face it the world would have starved a long time ago if it weren’t for potatoes, rice and pasta. Man cannot live off coconut foam and micro-greens alone.

There is a lesson in this (it’s a stretch I know) for digital marketers currently obsessing with the finer frills of SEO, the engagement rates of their home page take-overs and the eCPM of their performance media buy. We’re forgetting the Internet (and it’s users) need feeding.

Cast your mind back to 2004, the Internet was very hungry. It was fed up with small portions of flash intros, gourmet brochure-ware websites and reductions of one-way communications. We demanded something bigger to chew on.  Comfort food finally came in the form of Blogger, Wikipedia and Co. who, in successfully bringing down the worldwide walled web, encouraged a new breed of chefs cooking up simple meals of content and conversations we could all digest.

It’s been 6 years since this wall came down yet big business is still struggling with getting simple well cooked content (user generated or otherwise) onto the menu. There’s little encouragement from the industry to change our ways. The ‘c’ word rarely gets a mention in agency land, maybe because there’s no award for “Best User Generated Content” or maybe it’s because, like potatoes, it’s hard to charge big dollars for.

All excuses to one side, it is time to put focus back on content. It is content that makes for great SEO, it is content that delivers great user experience and it is content that reduces bounce rates and improves conversion – nothing more complicated than that. So get back to basics, put ‘content strategy’ at the head of your brief and and give it the due time and consideration it needs. Don’t fear you can still add a touch of truffle oil at the end.

Prologue

Part 1 of this post outlined some ways to avoid a social media debacle; but, hindsight is 20/20 (…just ask Nestlé) so this second part looks at some ways of handling/diffusing an ominous social media shit storm looming on the horizon.

Be good.

Companies have always had naysayers and critics, but with social media they are much more capable of connecting, mobilising and plotting their attack. So, if your company isn’t doing the right thing (as related to fair trade, employment, the environment), now might be a good time to reassess.

This is obviously easier said than done (particularly when it involves modifying major components of a business), but just realise that if you continue using unfavourable practices that you’ll likely come under fire for it.

If you can’t be good, at least be prepared.

Don’t get caught with your pants down – know who your critics are, monitor conversations, anticipate backlash. (see part 1).

In either instance, be present.

Avoiding social media isn’t a solution – people will talk about your brand with or without your complicity. Furthermore, having your own presence actually gives you a home field advantage:

• you already have an open dialogue, which may serve as an early warning system
• you have a voice to tell your side of the story
• you’re able to put your best foot forward and share all the good things your brand is doing (the best offense is a good defense)

The Storm

What’s the real issue?

Sometimes the root of the problem is glaringly obvious (i.e. a customer’s had a bad experience with your company and is pissed off about it), but vague ranting, satire and trolling mightn’t be so evident. Take some time to make sure you really know what’s going on.

Stay in control.

It’s essential that you maintain control of yourself and the situation – don’t lose your cool, don’t get defensive and never let ‘em see you sweat.

Be personable.

Introduce yourself, use your real name, communicate like a real person. It’s much easier to fling poo at Mr. Anonymous Douchebag than it is Dave, a likable guy who lives a couple of suburbs away.

Welcome Utilise feedback.

Yes, you should absolutely welcome feedback and comments (particularly from a PR perspective) – but why not go one step further and actually do something with this intel. Lots of companies use social media as a ‘listening device’, but few actually do anything with what they hear.

Ignore & monitor.

I’m not saying that if you ignore Greenpeace they’ll go away. However, not all backlash is created equal so pick your battles. Suzie in Nebraska bagging your new product on her LiveJournal ≠ Greenpeace/mommy bloggers/other frighteningly powerful groups declaring social media war (check out Jeremiah Owyang’s backlash categorisation scale).

Collaborate on a solution.

If people tell you that some part of your business sucks, ask them to help you improve it. Not only does this make them feel like you’re really listening, it also refocuses their attention on something other than a smear campaign.

Epilogue

Image Credit: Lee Lowery Jr. (http://lowery.tamu.edu/)

Debrief.

After you’ve rode out the storm, spend some real time dissecting the situation. When did things start turning sour? How could you have better anticipated this? What did you do well? What needs to be improved? And, most importantly, how can you avoid this from happening in the future?

Use your findings to make real changes within your business. And for god’s sake, get some contingency plans and procedures in place!

My presentation on the business application of location-based service Foursquare from last week’s AMI FutureComms workshop:

My Kitchen Sucks!, an IKEA campaign we’ve been working on with Market United launched earlier this week:

Shoddy, dated or just not functional — tell us why your kitchen sucks and you could win an IKEA kitchen to the value of $10,000.

With my partiality duly noted, I’m still gonna say that this campaign is pretty damn awesome.

South Australians and West Australians simply own up to their avocado green appliances, stained and kettle-burned laminate countertops and harvest gold linoleum tiles for the chance to win a brand new $10,000 IKEA kitchen (one to be awarded in each state). Voting is open to the public, and entrants can earn extra points by uploading evidence (photos and floor plans) and by publicly shaming themselves (sharing their entry on Facebook, Twitter and email).

My Kitchen Rocks! is running simultaneously, the only difference being that S. and W. Australians tell about their ‘tasteful’ kitchens for the chance to win $2,000 to spend at IKEA. (But let’s be honest, this is really more about the suck – seeing people’s flash, functional and well-appointed kitchens is not nearly as much fun.)

Note the background image on Kevin's Twitter profile...

*By ‘some’ I mean a PR agency who you could argue has a profit motive for fear mongering; but nevermind that, I’m going for dramatic effect here.

Regardless of whether this prophesy comes true, I’ve seen many branded social media endeavours that have a definite lack of contingency planning, so a little extra prep won’t hurt.

3 things to help you avoid a Y2.01K crisis:

1. Plans

• add an addendum to your existing crisis management plan that outlines procedures, concerns and considerations that are specific to social media (i.e. public visibility, timeliness, communication channels)
• mobilise an internal response team; stack it to include a PR person with crisis management experience, a social media person who understands the space and a lawyer who can reduce the risk of you getting sued

2. Policies

• create 2 sets of policies:
  • Rules of Engagement: outline employees’ rights, responsibilities and repercussions of engaging in social media
  • Community Guidelines: set rules for users to follow if they wish to participate in any of your online communities (i.e. Facebook Page, forum, comment on your blog)
• ensure both sets of guidelines exist in document form (‘understood’ policies don’t cut it) so that they can be published, distributed, referenced, called upon as proof in a court case – you get the idea

3. Systems

• implement systems that monitor online conversations:
  • keep an eye on your critics and naysayers
  • watch for mood swings
  • create alerts to notify you when sensitive keywords are used in conversations about your brand (i.e. palm oil in Nestlé’s case)
• connect with / enlist your advocates; anticipate issues before they blow up

Prevention is key, but in my next post I’ll outline some ways you can diffuse a mounting crisis.

I traveled over 20,000 kilometers to attend SXSW interactive – a conference referred to by some as ‘spring break for nerds’. Two weeks ago, when I started writing this post (apologies for the delay, family emergency), I had this grandiose plan that I’d write one brilliant post summarising all that I’d seen and learned. I now realise that’s not going to happen because 1. I’m sober now, and 2. SXSW is more about the people you meet (usually over margaritas: see #1) than the panels and keynote speakers.

BUT, since that isn’t much help for the handful of you that weren’t there, here are 4 of my takeaways:

Photo credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Location, Location, Location
(no surprise here)

In the main event of the ‘Geolocal Showdown’, location-based-services (LBS) Foursquare and Gowalla competed against one another not only for publicity and check-ins, but also for top honours in the mobile website category of the 13th Annual Web Awards Ceremony (Gowalla won). Bragging rights and egos were put on the line as both companies hosted parties on the same night just down the block from one another (IMHO, Foursquare totally won for bringing Ashton Kutcher to the party).

At the same time, smaller LBS providers such as Loopt, Brightkite, Plancast and Whrrl quietly fought their own battles for attention in the geolocal space. This all sounds overwhelming, huh? Never fear, SimpleGeo launched Vicarious.ly which aggregates check-ins from all these services into one place! And for those that want to know before they go, two Digg employees launched Wheretheladies.at.

Everyone has their own loyalty, so it’s difficult to discern who came out on top. What is clear, however, is the fact that location is the place where everyone wants to be.

Who are all you people?

Apparently I’m not the only one who’s a sucker for hashtags and guacamole… the interactive portion of the conference attracted over 14,000 people (a 33% increase from last year), surpassing music in terms of attendees for the first time ever.

All the usual suspects from the NYC, San Francisco and growing Austin tech scene were there, but who were the rest of the people? Although the increase in size wasn’t all good (crowded hallways, overcapacity panels, way too long of a queue at the bar), it was interesting to meet the different sorts of people that attended – client side, agency side, academia – and of course the aspiring fameballs. I think Vanity Fair is partially to blame for the massive crowds. Or maybe it’s hip to be square, again.

It’s not all about the tech

SXSW is admittedly one big geek show-and-tell, but there was a strong presence from typically “untechie” consumer brands. Pepsi was all over the show, actually it seemed as though they pretty much owned the damn conference (I’m clearly still bitter about being unable to get a simple can of Coke anywhere near the convention center); Chevy sent 8 teams of digerati from across the US on roadtrips from their hometowns to Austin. And as far as swag goes, SoBe kept attendees hydrated and drunk by serving up unlimited free cocktails in the Lizard Lounge, ZonePerfect spruikers were on every street corner trying to ensure the waifish crowd could power through on only a few hours sleep (but we all know it was the free cigarettes American Spirit handed out that really kept kept them going).

Whilst everyone at SXSW wants to know who the new Twitter is going to be, I was also refreshed* by the number of discussions about big picture topics such as media democracy & journalism, online privacy and social change.

*damn you, Pepsi.

Is Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter?

As you probably know, Twitter launched at SXSW in 2007. When 2008 failed to produce an equally major launch (and the Twitter craze continued), Twitter was proclaimed the new Twitter. Although Foursquare was born at the 2009 conference, it was a relatively quiet launch and Twitter again dominated the scene – making Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter. Flash forward to SXSW 2010 – who is the new Twitter? Some say Foursquare, others say location-based-services in general, I say Twitter (mostly because I like saying Twitter is the new Twitter is the new Twitter is the new Twitter).

But in all seriousness, Twitter’s been doing some interesting things. During his keynote, CEO Evan Williams launched @anywhere – a framework for adding the Twitter experience anywhere on the web; it’s basically Twitter’s version of Facebook Connect.

In addition to this, Twitter began giving US users the ability to include location data alongside their tweets and revamped their homepage to make it more dynamic by showing real-time info about who is tweeting, trending topics and popular tweets (I don’t actually see this update, so I’m thinking it must be another US-only launch). Twitter added: All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for status updates anymore. Zing, Facebook!

SO, Twitter’s having launched @anywhere, adding location data and giving Facebook the middle finger earn it my vote for being the new Twitter.

I was indulging in one of my favourite lunchtime pastimes today – checking out websites which have won awards. Today’s site, Waterlife, was courtesy of the SXSW 2010 Web Awards.

Waterlife won the award for the Activism category, a sector I find seriously interesting for two reasons. Firstly, I am fascinated by the web’s ability to instill and express emotion, which any good activism website will do, and figuring out how they achieve that heart warming, skin tingling effect. Secondly, the idea a website can change the course of history by making people DO something about political or ethical concerns is simply awesome.

Considering Waterlife is raising awareness of the challenges The Great Lakes is facing in the States, a far cry from the streets of Freo, Western Australia, where I live, it surprised me to feel a lump in my throat as I surfed around the site. How did they achieve it?

I’m not normally a fan of music on a website. I think it can be annoying, impact download speed and feel a little pretentious. Particularly if it’s a corporate website and I’m just trying to get a phone number. But on this site it works. Sigur Ros, Philip Glass and Brian Eno’s tracks all have that etheral, watery quality that supports the site’s topic matter, but also has the added effect of pulling at the ole heart strings.

This watery quality extends to the homepage interactive feature, a fluid animation of images representing each of the different ways the lakes have been affected. Check it out yourself, the screenshot doesn’t do it justice. It reminds me of a couple of Jonathan Harris’s websites – We Feel Fine and The Whale Hunt.

The audio features don’t stop with music. Each content page has a sound bite or two overlaid over the music. Each one comes from people who are touched by the changes there – from commercial fishermen and local residents (“people are saying “pray for me”, I have cancer”) to activists and businessmen.

They have also used video footage as background for text content, and added whimsical animations to the page layout.

The copy works hard too – “the commercial fishermen are noticing it, as are those who simply take solace in a tranquil day out on the dock – the fish are disappearing, one by one.” And I’m a big fan of how they’ve used headlines to intro a section of the site (while it quietly loads in the background).

So I’m pretty much a convert – but how do I act? I search the site and finally spot a small link at the bottom of the page for “Resources / Community Action”. It takes me to a boring list of different community groups.

Disappointing! How cool would it be to have a tool that finds out the best way for you to get involved? In other words, I don’t want to have to trawl through all these community sites myself to find out if they have any way I can get involved considering who I am, where I live and what I have to offer these groups. Build me a tool that does and I will gladly give you my email address so you can keep me updated on the cause (and charge me with the passion to make a difference).

I think one of the big opportunities online marketing has to offer is the facilitation of a brand journey. A campaign or site doesn’t have to limit it’s objectives to awareness raising. Use that awareness immediately. I’m at the site, I know what issues the Great Lakes are experiencing now, and I want to do something about it. Faciliate the next step for me.

Your totally awesome Facebook Fan Page is all set up and populated with exclusive behind-the-scenes content – you can almost taste the engagement. …except the fans are nowhere to be found. (side note: “build it and they will come” is one of the greatest lies ever told).

So what now? How do you reel ‘em in? Why with a contest of course! Just pick up a few iPod Nanos to use as prizes (who doesn’t love those things?!) and lay out your conditions for entry… all you must do is become a fan, write on our wall, post a discussion topic, upload a fan photo, tag yourself in said photo, ‘like’ our status update and then tell all your friends about it! Then you can just sit back and watch the fans flock to your page.

Not so fast… while this may have been a quick fix in the past, Facebook tightened the reins on contests with the updated Promotion Guidelines released late last year. Three months later, I’m still seeing heaps of renegade Facebook Pages out there, running their illegal contests, with no regard for the laws of the land. So, I thought some cliff notes might be handy.

What does it include?

The guidelines govern the administration and publicising of promotions, contests, competitions, sweepstakes, ‘games of skill’, ‘games of chance’, lotteries (anything where someone gets something for free) on the Facebook platform. (side note: for simplicity’s sake I’m using the generic term ‘contest’ to refer to any of the above from here on out).

What is meant by ‘publicising’ a contest?

‘Publicising’ a contest on Facebook means using any part of the platform to talk about it (regardless of where the user actually enters the contest).

You would probably use things status updates, Facebook ads, wall posts, events, static FBML (custom content), fan updates (private messaging) to do this.

What is meant by ‘administering’ a contest?

‘Administering’ a contest on Facebook means using any part of the platform in the actual execution of the contest.

This includes entry collection, judging/winner selection and winner notification.

3 important rules to consider:

1. You cannot administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

• You cannot make the act of fanning your Page the means by which users are entered; that is, anything along the lines of “become a fan of our Facebook Page and you’ll automatically be entered to win…” is prohibited.
• However, you could condition entry on the user becoming a fan if done via a 3rd party application (i.e. the user must become a fan as a step in the application’s entry process).

2. You cannot require a user to do something on the Facebook platform to enter the contest.

• This means you cannot condition entry on a user performing actions such as commenting, posting status updates, ‘liking’, uploading photos, changing one’s profile image, RSVPing for events.
• But you could condition entry on the user providing content if done via a 3rd party application (i.e. require the user to upload a photo to your 3rd party app but not directly to your Facebook Wall or photo album).

3. You can’t use the Facebook platform to notify winners.

• This means you cannot use any of Facebook’s inbuilt communication tools like messages, chat, status updates and wall posts to contact winners.
• But, if you were to use one of those 3rd party applications I keep mentioning, you could put in a field that requires users to provide a contact email address or phone number where they can be reached if they win.

4. You must get approval for any contest you wish to administer on Facebook.

• You cannot administer any contest on Facebook unless you’ve gotten the OK from your account rep. Speaking from personal experience, Facebook reps are usually pretty unresponsive unless they think there’s $ involved (we’re talking like >$10k ) – think about (or perhaps feign interest in) taking out some ads.
• However, you can publicise a contest without obtaining Facebook’s written consent.

Disclaimer: The rules outlined above are accurate at the time of posting, but it’s Facebook… they love changing things up without notice. In addition, whilst this post addresses some of the more common violations, it is by no means an exhaustive guide to administering or publicising contests on Facebook. Be sure to read the Promotion Guidelines in their entirety before initiating any promotions on the Facebook platform.

Slideshow of what you can and can’t do with promotions on Facebook:

OK so this is a tad self promotional but there’s something in it for you so don’t be too quick to judge. I will be presenting at this year’s Sydney ad:tech and if, despite this announcement, you were still thinking of attending (16th and 17th March) then drop me a line (marc@thinqdigital.com.au) as I can send you a code that scores 20% off your ticket(s). Here endeth the promotion.